The practice of adopting such laws shows that parliamentary activity has degraded

Rosbalt*, 30.06.2022

Photo: Alexander Shishlov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The State Duma adopted a unified law “On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence”. Now new restrictions are being introduced for foreign agents. They will be deprived of the opportunity to receive state financial support, including that in the implementation of creative activities, and they will not be able to use the simplified taxation scheme. They will also be prohibited from participating in the organisation and conduct of a public environmental expertise, teaching and educational activities in relation to minors. Alexander Shishlov, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg from the Yabloko party, tells what is behind the practices of recognising Russians as foreign agents.

Question: Why is so much attention paid to “foreign agents”, who are very few in our country? In addition, many of them have already left the borders of their homeland. Why waste so much effort and energy on such a narrow group of people?

Alexander Shishlov: I think the question is broader. It is not just about people who are called “foreign agents” or “under foreign influence”. In my opinion, this is an integral part of the overall campaign to combat dissent and restrict people’s rights to access information. This is not just a fight against so-called foreign influence.

The very practices and technologies of adopting such laws, unfortunately, show that our parliamentary activity has degraded, as well as legislative. Let us take this particular bill. Sometimes they say that the text was hand-scribbled, in my opinion, this is just about this text. It was created in a hurry, and the amendments that were adopted were written by the same authors. They, apparently, realised that they had not made “everything” there, that they needed to make even more bans.

Question: The amendments were made not only by the authors of the law. We talked with Ksenia Goryacheva, deputy from the New People party, after the first reading. She was certain that the bill would undergo major changes.

Alexander Shishlov: In my opinion, this is the law, which cannot be corrected. In a sense, we are simply talking about a defective legal act. It cannot be improved by amendments. Nevertheless, some deputies and senators introduced innocent amendments that slightly limited the scope of its application. For example, it was proposed to exclude lawyers’ and notaries’ chambers from potential candidates for foreign agents. This was rejected.

The most notable amendment that did not pass attempted to link the cause and the effect. When the whole thing with foreign agents began many years ago, the main argument was that those who work in the interests of foreign actors (states or companies) should be kept under control. Then some explanation was logical. But the present law does not contain a condition that the activity is carried out in the interests of someone abroad. An amendment was filed that foreign agents are people who carry out certain activities in the interests of foreign actors. This amendment was rejected.

It represents a construction according to which, one can say by stretching a point very little, that the authors of the law and the deputies who voted for it are themselves foreign agents, because they are engaged in political activities and are under foreign influence. After all, they are all under sanctions! This means that they are influenced by foreign countries. Here is a demonstration of the absurdity of this legislative product.

Question: if I am not mistaken, not all deputies of the State Duma, but the majority of them, are under sanctions today. This, certainly, does not change the essence of the matter. Many experts note the lack of logic in the bill. For example, international academic activity is now a problems for Russian scientists.

Alexander Shishlov: This situation has a broader context, as I have said. It aims to hinder the professional work of people in different fields. In this case, we are talking about those who have at least some connection with at least something foreign. We can say that if a journalist goes out for a glass of beer with a foreigner, then in terms of the law, it will look like receiving advisory or organisational and methodological assistance from a foreign source. After that, the Ministry of Justice can extra-judicially register this journalist as a foreign agent. Unfortunately, such an absurd situation has developed.

It is also important to understand why such acts are adopted by the State Duma. We need to go back and recollect how it was formed. We were urged [by Alexei Navalny’s team] to vote for anyone, but the [ruling] United Russia party. And people did vote for the communists, for the Just Russia party with the Prigozhin’s trolls, and now they are adopting such laws. This is another lesson for all of us, what this or that position may lead in the elections, when the parliament is being formed. It [the parliament] has been formed in such a way that laws impeding professional activities of many people and, most importantly, impeding adequate information for the society are adopted virtually unanimously.

Interviewed by Peter Godlevsky

*Media acting, according to the Ministry of Justice, as a foreign agent.

ALEXANDER SHISHLOV

is head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, and a member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party